Late nights, the Q runs local between 96 St and Coney Island-Stillwell Av via the Manhattan Bridge.

Second Avenue service

Starting on January 1, 2017 Q trains will run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and every six minutes during peak hours.

Starting on Monday, January 9, 2017, Q trains will begin operating in full service, which includes overnight service.

Notable points from the new Q Line timetable

Scheduled travel time from 96th St to . . . (at 7 am on weekdays)

63rd St/Lexington Av | 6 mins

58th St/7th Av | 9 mins

34th St Herald Sq | 13 mins

Canal St | 20 mins

Atlantic Av (Brooklyn) | 29 mins

Coney Island-Stillwell Av | 1 hr 4 mins

Oddly the strip map in the Q Line timetable does not list the new stations at 96th St, 86th St, and 72nd St as ♿ accessible stations. Either this is just an oversight or the new elevators are not yet ready. I guess we'll find out on January 1st. (Update: The timetable was corrected on December 30th. The elevators were in fact working when revenue service started on January 1, 2017.)

A footnote:
As I write this posting it is hard for me to imagine that the countdown clock on this blog (which I posted here over three years ago) now says that we have just 2 days to go until the Start of Revenue Service. It really only seems like yesterday that I posted my first set of images of the construction of Second Avenue... back on April 14, 2007.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend Governor Cuomo's Ceremonial Ride on New Years Eve (I haven't been invited) or the Start of Revenue Service on January 1st (we have guests visiting).

I will post a set of images of the new stations in the next week or so and then I plan to wrap up this project with a retrospective posting that looks back at the past ten years.

I will leave Phase 2, 3 and 4 of this project to someone else.

Ben Heckscher

Here's a listing of the recent additionsto the right-hand column of The Launch Box:

Revenue service will begin at noon on January 1, when the first uptown Q train to Second Avenue departs from the 57-7 Av station. Trains will run every six minutes during peak hours and will run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the rest of the first week. Overnight service will begin on Monday, January 9.

Friday, December 9, 2016

I ventured out last Wednesday to have a look at the work sites along Second Avenue and what I saw was not pretty.

What I expected to see was a set of new subway entrances and ancillary buildings that were finished. Instead what I saw was an army of construction workers, supervisors, inspectors, consultants, engineers, MTA officials, and others racing to complete a project that first broke ground back in 2007.

Reliable sources have told me that Governor Cuomo has been on site three times in the past few weeks and that he is pushing the MTA very hard to get the line open by the end of 2016. Sources tell me that many contractors now have people working 24/7 - three shifts, seven days a week.

Other reliable sources tell me that the line will open, in some form, on Friday, December 30th, 2016. (it appears now that the line will open on January 1, 2017) What this exactly means is not clear but it would seem that if there is a will (of the Governor) there must be a way. Right?

We should know for sure next week when the MTA Board of Directors holds their last meetings before the end of the year.

Governor Andrew Cuomo toured the active 72nd Street Station work site on Friday, December 9th.

Melissa DeRosa, Governor Cuomo's Chief of Staff, said, "Governor Cuomo visits the Second Avenue subway several times a week and holds weekly meetings with the MTA and its contractors. Today was another one of those visits. The Governor believes the progress is encouraging and he's cautiously optimistic about hitting the January 1 deadline."

Oddly, the images show that the Governor was not wearing a hard hat or protective glasses during his tour of the job site.

A note about the posting that follows:
Click any of the station signs to view a map that shows the location of each new subway entrance.

12/7/2016
Upper level - looking east

This is an image of the upper level of the existing Lexington Av/63rd St station. The train arriving is a Manhattan-bound F train. On the opposite side of the platform is the track that leads to the new tunnel under Second Avenue.

12/7/2016
Upper level - looking east

A view of one of the new stairways that connect the upper and lower levels of this station.

12/7/2016
Lower level - looking east

F Line trains use the tracks on the right and Q Line trains will use the tracks on the left.

Further information on the reconstruction of this station can be found in this earlier report:"Behind the Blue Wall" | The Launch Box | October 21, 2012

Now let's go up to street level to have a look at the new entrances that will provide access to the east end of the Lexington Av/63rd St platform.

12/7/2016
63rd Street & 3rd Avenue

A view of the new elevator entrance on the NW corner and the new entrance on the SW corner.

12/7/2016
63rd Street & 3rd Avenue

A view of the new entrance on the NE corner.

12/7/2016
63rd Street & 3rd Avenue

A view of the new entrance on the SE corner.

The images that follow show on-going work at the street level entrances to the new 72nd Street Station on Second Avenue. As the images show, there is still a considerable amount of work that still needs to be accomplished before these entrances can be opened to the public.

12/7/2016
69th St - looking south

A view of one of the two entrances been constructed in a bump-out on Second Avenue near the NE corner of this intersection. If I'm not mistaken, the original plan was to construct this entrances inside the building at this corner but for many reasons this plan was changed.

12/7/2016
btw. 69th & 70th streets - looking south

Another view of the new entrances on this location.

12/7/2016
72nd St - looking east

A view of the new elevator entrance on the SE corner of this intersection. The entrance consists of a bank of five elevators.

12/7/2016
72nd St - looking east

The image shows a flock of birds flying above the new elevator entrance at this location. The birds are not actually real - they are part of the artwork that has been installed at this entrance.

12/7/2016
72n St - looking east

A man waiting for an elevator or a work or art? You be the judge.

12/7/2016
72nd St - looking NW

A view of the massive 8-story tall ancillary building that has been constructed at the NW corner of this intersection. This structure also includes a new entrance to the station.

12/7/2016
2nd Av, just north of 72nd St - looking west

Workers dealing with a few issues at this entrance location.

Look carefully and you can see something quite odd in this image. So why is there a balloon flying under the roof here?

I was fooled by what I saw when I took this shot. It wasn't until the following day when I was editing that I noticed that this image includes a lifesize piece of artwork.

12/7/2016
83rd St - looking south

A view of the new entrance to the 86th Street station at this location.

12/7/2016
Just south of 86th St - looking north

The worker in this image is measuring the sound level at this location. The worker is collecting data to verify that the sound that being produced by the nearby jackhammer work is not louder than what is permitted.

12/7/2016
Just north of 86th St - looking south

Ongoing work at 86th street. The building on the right is an ancillary structure for the new subway line. The new entrances at this location are on 86th Street on the east side of Second Avenue.

12/7/2016
Just south of 94th St - looking west

A view of the new entrance on the SW corner of 94th and Second Ave.

12/7/2016
just north of 94th St - looking south

A view of a new entrance on the NE corner of 94th and Second Avenue

12/7/2016
96th St, NE corner - looking SE

A view of the new entrance on the SW corner of 96th and Second Avenue - which includes both an escalator entrance and an elevator entrance.

12/7/2016
95th St - looking north

A very active work site at this location.

12/7/2016
97th St, NE corner - looking SW

The ancillary building for the 96th Street station.

Interested in what's next for the Second Avenue Subway? Then get yourself over to the official Second Avenue Subway Community information Center at 1628 Second Avenue, btw. 84th and 85th streets. The staff there can answer most any question that you might have about Phase I or Phase II of the project

Note that this office will most likely be moving to East Harlem at some stage in 2017 as Phase II of the project kicks into high gear.

Further details on the scanned images below.

Here's a listing of the recent additionsto the right-hand column of The Launch Box:

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DISCLAIMERS:1. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is not associated with nor does it endorse this website or its content.

2. I am not affiliated with the MTA, any of the contractors working on this project, the City of New York, the State of New York, or the Federal Government. I'm just a citizen journalist who is following this project.